1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is a knee bolster mounted on an instrument panel to protect legs of a passenger at a collision of an automobile, and more particularly, a knee bolster designed to initially bear a load at a collision by utilization of a lid of a glove box mounted on the instrument panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is such a conventionally known knee bolster described in Japanese Patent Application Laid open No. 207252/86.
This knee bolster has a structure comprising a first hollow double-sided protector member made of two steel sheets placed one on the other and buried in a lid of a love box, a second protector member made of a steel sheet and buried in a periphery of an opening in an instrument panel against which an outer periphery of the lid abuts, and pins projectingly mounted on a back of the first protector member at its left and right portions and opposed to pin holes made in the second protector member.
With this knee bolster, if the knee of a passenger strikes against the lid of the glove box at the time of a collision of an automobile, a load due to this striking is initially absorbed by a deformation of the first protector member. When the deformation of the first protector member is further increased, the pins are engaged into the pin holes in the second protector member. This causes the load applied to the first protector member to be distributed over the second protector member, while causing the first protector member to be locked to the second protector member and to be prevented from being forwardly pushed through.
However, the prior art knee bolster is constructed of only the steel sheets and therefore, suffers from a problem that it is not only difficult to absorb a large shock, but also it is necessary to provide an alignment of the pins of the first protector member with the pin holes in the second protector member, resulting in a difficulty to assemble the knee bolster.